TNMC

Last night I watched the movie Mongol.  I'm not really going to review it, but I definitely want to talk about it.  A few weeks ago I discovered the podcast Hardcore History by Dan Carlin.  History has always fascinated me, although like many students I didn't usually enjoy history classes.  There are no doubt exceptions but most of the ones I took focused heavily on the memorization of dates and general themes.  History is at its best when told as a good story.  And that's what I love about Harcore History.  Carlin picks a topic that interests him and then tells us a good story.  He rarely moves in a straight linear fashion and even less often focuses on dates.  He is much more interested in the stories and what all of it tells us about humanity.  If history classes were taught in this style and with this sort of passion, students would never complain about taking history courses.  They would look forward to them.

One of my favorite episodes was one called Steppe Stories.  It focuses on the various groups that have occupied the Asian steppes and how they influenced history.  Clearly the most influential of these were the Mongols, who rose to a great power under Ghengis Khan.  And that brings us back around to Mongol.  That movie tells the story of how a young boy named Temujin rises to become one of the world's most powerful military leaders.  Now, before I go on, let me state my opinion of history and movies, which is: don't learn your history from the movies.  By their very nature, movies are lies and so expecting good history from a movie is folly.  That doesn't mean we can't enjoy historical films or even learn something from them.  Just don't expect to get accurate history from movies.

Mongol is a perfect example.  It does not hew perfectly to history in telling Temujin's story.  It invents some things, glosses over other things and frequently combines people and events in the name of a good narrative story.  All of that makes perfect sense in making a good movie.  It just doesn't make for accurate history, thus my warning against accepting movies as historical record.  All that aside, it's a damn good movie and well worth your time.  First off, it is beautiful.  The steppes are naturally cinematic.  They almost couldn't help looking great with these sorts of locations.  Combined with an epic story the movie feels huge and important without having to try all that hard to do so.

I'm afraid I don't have any particular point to all this.  I'm typing late at night because insomnia is a very real problem and it helps settle my mind down by writing what's on my mind.  In the process I'm recommending you check out both Mongol and Hardcore History.  That's it I think.  Good night.